We are using the most updated version, although I cannot definitively give the number. I believe it is 1.6.
Team Lead at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Excellent support, but this should be available on a regional basis
Pros and Cons
- "I like the original functionality, which allows for providing secure DNS services."
- "The integration with Cisco could be better."
- "While the way the solution works with the functions is fantastic, updates or the ability to secure the vault while offline for cloud-based services should be addressed."
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
I like the original functionality, which allows for providing secure DNS services. To define that, one's users can be on-net or off-net. This can be either in one's office or a remote location. This is the functionality that I find to be most prevalent in the area.
What needs improvement?
While the way the solution works with the functions is fantastic, updates or the ability to secure the vault while offline for cloud-based services should be addressed.
The integration with Cisco could be better. We already have something along these lines and so far so good.
Local support should also be provided, so that there will not be a need to lump us in with the European pool. For other products, Cisco does have local support. There is a local number which can be reached should the need arise. The support should be more regionalized, as we are talking about an endpoint to endpoint solution. Owing to the number of people who interface with the tool and the response time, local support should be provided. The local support job should handle the app of Cisco Meraki.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Cisco Umbrella for over a year.
Buyer's Guide
Cisco Umbrella
June 2026
Learn what your peers think about Cisco Umbrella. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: June 2026.
900,747 professionals have used our research since 2012.
How are customer service and support?
Cisco Talks is just about the best technical assistance center in the world. I have no complaints or issues with it.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
In the past I worked with Checkpoint Harmony, which is a similar tool that provides a certain level of endpoint support to users and a measure of coverage.
I like the responsiveness of the technical assistance center of Cisco Talks. As such, I will always go with Cisco. It was thanks to the technical assistance center that I went with Checkpoint Harmony on one occasion.
How was the initial setup?
For organizations in which I have been involved, I start off easy and then proceed to compliant, since there is a need to ensure that one does not overly complicate his work. The deployment for each person is generally very difficult. We start with easy, at which point we are encouraged to have a good grasp of the technology, without which the entire environment will be locked down and nobody will be able to do anything. As such, I start with easy and migrate the customers to compliant over time.
What about the implementation team?
Each environment has two people who are responsible for deployment.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
In the region I'm from, that of EMAR, Europe, the Middle East, Eastern Asia and Africa, our organizations do not have many liquid cash assets, so the price could be better.
What other advice do I have?
We use the solution both internally and externally, as the company for which I work, Signal Alliance, is a systems integrator.
One should keep an open mind when it comes to using the solution, start off easy and then proceed to compliant.
I rate Cisco Umbrella as a seven out of ten.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. partner
Spider Solutions CTO at a security firm with 11-50 employees
Affordable, easy to use, with good visibility
Pros and Cons
- "It offers good visibility for the Administrator. The administrator has full visibility of what is blocked or has the knowledge of where users go when they are surfing the internet."
- "The most valuable feature is the ease of use."
- "I would like to see more integrability with other products."
What is our primary use case?
We use Cisco Umbrella for protecting the web surfing channel.
When users are accessing the internet, mainly for web surfing, Umbrella will protect the access to the internet.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature is the ease of use.
It's very Robust.
It offers good visibility for the Administrator. The administrator has full visibility of what is blocked or has the knowledge of where users go when they are surfing the internet.
What needs improvement?
I would like to see more integrability with other products.
If I could take this information and integrate it with other products, it would be beneficial.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using Cisco Umbrella for two years.
We are using the latest version.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
We have no issues with the stability of the Cisco Umbrella.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Cisco Umbrella is a scalable product.
We have 100 users in our organization who are using this solution.
How are customer service and technical support?
Technical support is fine.
How was the initial setup?
For us, the installation was very easy.
We had the option of using the on-premises device, which would give you better visibility, but we didn't use it. This choice made the installation very easy.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The licensing fee is paid on a yearly basis.
The price is okay. I don't have any issues with the price of the Cisco Umbrella.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend this solution to others.
I would rate Cisco Umbrella an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Buyer's Guide
Cisco Umbrella
June 2026
Learn what your peers think about Cisco Umbrella. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: June 2026.
900,747 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Consultor en Seguridad de la Información at ISS
Fast and easy to setup with a nice DNS-Layer of security
Pros and Cons
- "Cisco Umbrella is such a solution and can be implemented very fast and easy. All that we must do is redirect the DNS registers in their routers, or the active directory service of the enterprise that are going to use in Umbrella services. If you buy the service now, in two hours you are protected by the service because it's very fast to put in service."
- "If you buy the service now, in two hours you are protected by the service because it's very fast to put in service."
- "There are cheaper solutions in the market."
What is our primary use case?
The Cisco Umbrella solution offers protection to everyone that will be connected to the internet because Umbrella provides a DNS-layer of security. When someone connects to the internet or they set up the DNS service, that person will use the Umbrella service and the extra layer of Umbrella. All their traits are to be located before they get to the device that the person is using to connect to the internet.
What is most valuable?
Cisco Umbrella can be implemented very fast and easily. All that we must do is redirect the DNS registers in their routers, or the active directory service of the enterprise that is going to use Umbrella services. If you buy the service now, in two hours you are protected by the service because it's very fast to put in service.
How was the initial setup?
Cisco Umbrella is such a solution and can be implemented very fast and easily. All that we must do is redirect the DNS registers in their routers, or the active directory service of the enterprise that is going to use in Umbrella services. If you buy the service now, in two hours you are protected by the service because it's very fast to put in service.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
There are cheaper solutions in the market, but when we say that we work with Cisco, usually we must handle the security architecture of Cisco more than a single product, so we can be successful in selling the security solutions.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate Cisco Umbrella at an eight on a scale of ten. I rate it at an eight because there must be something to improve in Umbrella.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
General Manager at a mining and metals company with 10,001+ employees
Good web filtering features, stable, and scalable, but the security could be improved
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable features of this solution are the Web Filtering and the APT."
- "If the security issues are taken care of it would be better."
- "The detection of wireless attacks or targeted attacks reports many false rates. This is an area that needs some improvement."
What is our primary use case?
We use Cisco Umbrella in our clients' companies.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable features of this solution are the Web Filtering and the APT. The APT is something that I find to be very good in Cisco.
What needs improvement?
The detection of wireless attacks or targeted attacks reports many false rates. This is an area that needs some improvement.
It should be more specific. This can help the customers to know the exact incident details.
The intel logs and the incident proactive security incidents for targeted attacks are also something that needs to be improved.
If the security issues are taken care of it would be better.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with Cisco Umbrella for two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
This solution is stable. There are no issues with stability.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It's a scalable solution.
How are customer service and technical support?
I am not managing this area. I have not contacted technical support.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We have worked with Forcepoint and vScaler.
I would recommend vScaler. On the Cloud front, the product is quite stable, and it is easy to manage.
vScaler and Cisco Umbrella are comparable.
How was the initial setup?
I was not a part of the installation and deployment.
I have not received any complaints, it appears that it was seamless.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The price could be lower.
What other advice do I have?
The web filtering works well. On the endpoint, the implementation should be properly planned, meticulously planned, to avoid missing any configuration that could cause major issues.
I would rate Cisco Umbrella a seven out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Technical Presales Consultant : Cisco Security at a computer software company with 201-500 employees
Segmenting email and web proxy features stand out but missing pieces leave holes to be filled
Pros and Cons
- "Helps block personal email accounts."
- "Web proxy adds an effective layer for security."
- "I had worked for Juniper support before and I worked for other tech support teams and I feel that Cisco's type of support is the best."
- "Missing a real data leakage prevention solution."
- "Data reporting is something I would like to see improved."
What is our primary use case?
Cisco has its own cloud that they manage Umbrella on. So Umbrella is not like any part of AWS or Azure or GPP. Our use case for Umbrella all depends on our customer's requirements. Cisco Umbrella has many packages to help address these requirements. The current package which we are working on incorporating more is Cisco Umbrella SIG, which is the Secure Internet Gateway. It has just been launched as part of Umbrella and we are currently exploring its capabilities and utility for our clients.
There are a lot of use cases for Umbrella, and for us those use cases include the following:
- One of the more important use cases for clients is using the product as a web proxy.
- A second thing would be a situation where a customer wants to block access to an employee's personal email account and allow only corporate email accounts.
- A third would be the cloud-delivered firewall. This would cover a situation where a customer would create a tunnel between their on-prem firewall to the Cisco Umbrella cloud. This would make it so that all the traffic is filtered by the Cisco Cloud Firewall.
- We use it to support our MDM (Mobile Device Management) integration. Umbrella can be integrated with various MDM products, like AirWatch and MobileIron, and that category of products.
- Umbrella supports family integrations. So we can search for information from AWS or Azure-based clouds and we can create family-based policies using Umbrella.
- Umbrella provides support for some features of Kaspersky. For example, it can tell you what all apps are running on the endpoints and it can give you granular control over those apps.
These are only a few of the use cases which I think are most important for us and our clients at this time when using Umbrella.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature which I found in Umbrella is the segmentation of personal accounts from corporate accounts. In order to work with this, Umbrella has a feature where we add the ID of the customer's Gmail account or the Azure account. That ID is then used as a filter to separate access so that only corporate Gmail will be accessible and it can block personal accounts.
The second very valuable feature is the web proxy part which is effective in determining if a feed may be malicious.
What needs improvement?
Data reporting is something I would like to see improved.
Cisco is currently rolling out data centers for this type of solution. Currently, they do not have data centers everywhere. For example, they do have one in Singapore but they do not have one in India. My clients are in India and they find an issue of slowness in the services from the Singapore data center. Cisco is working on building a data center in India to address the issue but information about the completion of that project are lacking details.
In the next release of Cisco Umbrella, I would like to see a DLP solution. That could be a feature someone can addon. But it should be a real Data Leakage Prevention solution to more securely handle the data.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with Umbrella for around three years now.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
This product is stable and it is very easy also to scale up.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Usually, a product is really designed for small, medium, or big companies. I think Umbrella is good to serve any size customer. The range could start from 200 users and then you have an interface that can handle anywhere up to 5,000 to 6,000 users. I think anything is possible with Umbrella as far as scaling usage because of the package and licensing options.
If you want to increase the number of users you just have to inform Cisco to tell them to increase the seat count on Umbrella. We can renew our licenses to be in compliance with the Cisco licensing policy.
How are customer service and technical support?
I had worked for Juniper support before and I worked for other tech support teams and I feel that Cisco's type of support is the best. The response time has been right on and then they isolate all of the issues. It is the best product support I have seen in a long time.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is very simple, you can set up Umbrella within two minutes I would say. You just have to point the DNS to Umbrella and that is it. So it is very easy to deploy and set up.
Actually, I am from the research team. We make the solution requirements, then the product moves on to the process team. Once I have made a solution, then the product team takes care of rolling out the implementation.
As this solution is a public cloud solution, there is very little maintenance which the customer has left to do. The setup is relatively easy and it is very good for the client.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The licensing part for Umbrella is really flexible. If a customer purchases a thousand licenses, and if at any point the customer overshoots the available license count, Umbrella would not stop working for the additional users. Cisco would be informed that there is an attempt at overconsumption of the licenses and they would inform the customers that their license count has been increased. It will do this automatically. The customer can take action to renew those licenses. So it is flexible.
There are three models for licensing. There is the Cisco Umbrella essential plan, then you have the advantage plan, and then they have the plan including SID. Every license comes with a different feature set.
What other advice do I have?
The advice that I would give someone looking at the Umbrella solution is that they can evaluate Umbrella because it is very easy to set up. You can get started discovering the product and do a little to check it out. They should make sure that all their use cases are covered by Umbrella.
On a scale from one to ten (where one is the worst and ten is the best), I would rate Cisco Umbrella as somewhere between a seven-point-five to eight, personally. But I will give it a seven overall.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Other
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Distributor
Chief Executive Officer at Cynexlink, LLC
Before it lets you go, it filters and gives you the okay to move forward with the website you're looking for
Pros and Cons
- "It's very stable, reliable and does its job."
- "We use Cisco Umbrella for web security and it's very good."
- "It has happened in the past that Cisco Umbrella has denied us access to secure websites."
What is our primary use case?
We use Cisco Umbrella for web security and it's very good. It acts as web filtration combined with security and I am very supportive of it, especially with cybersecurity trending these days and the amount of malware and spyware out there. It's important for end-users to have some sort of protection when they're browsing the internet and this product does that. Before it lets you go, it filters and gives you the okay to move forward with the website you're looking for. A lot of customers tend to make typos when they're searching for websites, which then leads them to unknown websites that automatically download malware to their computer — now they're infected. That's why you need web security.
We currently have about 1500 endpoints under Cisco Umbrella, but of course, we plan to increase our numbers. We offer Cisco Umbrella in our packages so whenever we get new customers on board, they get it.
What needs improvement?
In the past, Cisco Umbrella has denied us access to secure websites. I haven't seen it lately, but they have blocked different legitimate websites. However, they have good tools that allow you to refresh and verify whether a website is legitimate or not. They have so many servers across the United States and even globally. I believe that it helps you to identify a website.
In other words, the solution is good, we like it and we've been using it. We have a big customer of about 1,200 users and they're happy. The only thing I am not happy with is Cisco themselves. Not because of a technical or support issue, but because a division of Cisco poached one of my clients, stole them from me, which is completely unethical. When I talked to our account managers about it, they said there was nothing they could do about it because it was a different department. I said, "What do you mean different departments? This is my client and you guys went and provided them with a solution that I am already providing them?" So, that was a big deal for me.
Also, I think Cisco Umbrella has an automatic push feature, which is the automated updating agent, but if I am wrong, they should get it.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using Cisco Umbrella for roughly five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
We have been using Cisco Umbrella for three years; it's very stable, reliable and does its job. We experience minor hiccups here and there, but it's nothing that our team cannot handle, and if for some reason they cannot, then they can always reach out to customer support.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Cisco Umbrella is very scalable. You can do anything and it's very useful for MSP. It's basically a single window that allows us to manage different servers and different clients. That's the beauty of it, no more logging in and out for different clients, which is nice.
How are customer service and technical support?
For me personally, I consider Cisco to offer premier support. Currently, due to COVID-19, we cannot call them now for obvious reasons, but prior to COVID-19, Cisco support was one of the best, especially in regards to Umbrella. Honestly, we almost never have to contact them. I don't recall having to contact them even once over the last year or so.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
For web filtration, we tried Websense before but now I believe the cloud solution is the way to go, it's much better. We had a customer and they needed to have different layers of protection, especially today with cybersecurity, and open DNS is one of them. I believe it's mandatory that you must have some sort of defense because it's is up in the air, there may be other solutions, but something needs to protect you from going to the wrong websites.
How was the initial setup?
They have different setups. For example, you can integrate with the Cisco Firewall and I believe you can integrate with any platform with an agent, on each device. So, it really depends on how comfortable you feel with the setup. If you need to get more information and analytics, I believe it says the agent is the best way to go. The agent gives you every machine: for example, what has been blocked? What kind of security breaches have been attempted? Open DNS has defended this particular endpoint, but there are definitely many flexible, different integration methods to integrate a solution.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I am not sure, I don't have the numbers in front of me, but I think it's $1.00 or so per device/month.
What other advice do I have?
I like this product and I'd really recommend it to everyone. Obviously, it's not the only product out there, but today, every endpoint should have multiple layers of security. You need to protect your users when they are browsing—open DNS. You need to protect them from emails, both inbound and outbound and you need to protect the endpoint from breaching.
I would rate Cisco Umbrella a nine out of ten.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Partner
Network Support Engineer at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
A cloud-delivered security solution with a useful DNS layer security feature
Pros and Cons
- "I like the DNS layer security."
- "Cisco Umbrella has improved our organization in the sense that we have more users working from home because of the pandemic."
- "It would be better if there was a little bit of flexibility for organizations that don't have SD One in their environment. Because of the complexity of the environment, it's not easy to actually turn on the feature of the secure internet gateway for our users. We have not been able to explore that option yet."
What is our primary use case?
We are using Cisco Umbrella temporarily for DNS security, but we want to migrate to secure the internet gateway, which is what we are working on at the moment.
How has it helped my organization?
Cisco Umbrella has improved our organization in the sense that we have more users working from home because of the pandemic. We have a lot of users working outside of the office.
Cisco Umbrella helps secure our environment more because we've deployed some of our applications to the cloud. Our 365 team applications are running on the cloud. Cisco Umbrella helps protect us by guiding threats in external parameters.
It's been helpful for us in the sense that we can see and guide what is coming into the enterprise using Cisco Umbrella in the cloud. This is good for users that are working outside of the office environment and working from other remote locations.
What is most valuable?
I like the DNS layer security.
What needs improvement?
It would be better if there was a little bit of flexibility for organizations that don't have SD One in their environment. Because of the complexity of the environment, it's not easy to actually turn on the feature of the secure internet gateway for our users. We have not been able to explore that option yet.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Cisco Umbrella for almost six months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
For stability, I will give it 30%
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Scalability is okay. I think it has that functionality. Depending on the perspective of the environment, you can scale to any capacity you want because this is a cloud solution.
How are customer service and support?
Technical support is okay.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We had issues with our traditional secure web gateway. Our environment is not entirely SD One supported yet. We had problems with the SWG device for dot com users. We got advice from Cisco that Cisco data can do the same functionality for that. So, we'll be using it.
We were using Broadcom as our secure web, but we had issues with the number of connections that it could handle. That's the setback, and that's why we're opting for the Cisco umbrella solution.
We have a partnership with a company here, and we have a partnership with Cisco. Most of our appliances in the environment are Cisco products, and we felt that going for a product from them would serve our data. We didn't look at other products.
How was the initial setup?
This solution was deployed across different locations for different users.
We have six remote locations, and we have two data centers. It's deployed across all of those locations.
What other advice do I have?
I would encourage potential users to go for it.
On a scale from one to ten, I would give Cisco Umbrella an eight.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Cyber Security Consultant at flydubai
A good cloud-based solution for DNS security, but its on-prem rollout is quite challenging
Pros and Cons
- "It is a good cloud-based solution for DNS security."
- "Its on-prem rollout is quite challenging. It needs better coordination with the Internet Service Provider. It is a cloud-based solution, and any endpoint that connects to it has to go through all the gateway ISPs, but some of the ISPs block HTTPS-based DNS. That's where the challenge occurs with Umbrella."
What is most valuable?
It is a good cloud-based solution for DNS security.
What needs improvement?
Its on-prem rollout is quite challenging. It needs better coordination with the Internet Service Provider. It is a cloud-based solution, and any endpoint that connects to it has to go through all the gateway ISPs, but some of the ISPs block HTTPS-based DNS. That's where the challenge occurs with Umbrella.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for almost two years.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Its scalability is good.
How are customer service and support?
I have not interacted with them because it is done through the vendor.
What other advice do I have?
They need to engage the local service provider to do the technology improvements, such as for HTTPS-based DNS, which is a primary requirement for the customers.
I would rate it a seven out of ten.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Director at seamlessinfotech.com
A cloud security service with valuable data and intelligence built-in
Pros and Cons
- "I like that it integrates with the infrastructure, and I also like the kind of data and intelligence that's built-in, as it helps create innovative reports for security."
- "It could be more secure. It would be better if they provided a transferring proxy as an add-on and more integration."
What is our primary use case?
We use Cisco Umbrella for monitoring and more.
What is most valuable?
I like that it integrates with the infrastructure. I also like the kind of data and intelligence that's built-in. It helps create innovative reports for security.
What needs improvement?
It could be more secure. It would be better if they provided a transferring proxy as an add-on and more integration.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been dealing with Cisco Umbrella for two and a half years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Cisco Umbrella is a stable solution.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Cisco Umbrella is very scalable at the cloud level. All you have to do is increase the internet bandwidth and pay for the license.
How are customer service and technical support?
Technical support is excellent.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was pretty straightforward. It was simple.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The price depends on the use case, and it's a bit linear. But it depends on the customer's strategy and how Cisco plans to optimize the costs.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend this solution to potential users.
On a scale from one to ten, I would give Cisco Umbrella a ten.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Partner
Solutions Architect at Quartet Service Inc.
Effective site blocking, mature, and highly scalable
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable feature is the ability to block users from reaching places that they should not even try to reach has been a boon."
- "Umbrella has been a godsend for that."
- "One of the issues with Umbrella is as you get into endpoint detection and response, such as EDR point solutions, some of them will not integrate well with Umbrella. Sometimes when you want to use technology, such as Always On VPN, it will not work. There are some looming issues as one type of technology starts to crossover with Umbrella. That is the challenge and Umbrella should find a way to be more compatible with some of the endpoint response solutions that are coming out on the market."
What is our primary use case?
We are using this solution for DNS filtering to try and make sure that users do not make ill-advised clicks and find themselves in harm's way. Once we started to implement it, we realized that just putting Cisco Umbrella appliances on the company's network was not good enough. The notebooks travel and the risk factor travels. We switched over and for some time now, we have deployed it predominantly on roaming clients.
How has it helped my organization?
In the current environment, it is a good thing we had deployed the Cisco Umbrella before people started to work from home because of COVID. The risk factors went up and the amount of thoughtfulness that people put into, "Is this a real message or is this phishing?" People became lax. If we did not have this solution, the number of clients that we would be dealing with attack issues would have mushroomed to a much higher level than we had to deal with. Umbrella has been a godsend for that.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature is the ability to block users from reaching places that they should not even try to reach has been a boon.
Once we were given a roaming client and we did not only have Umbrella servers filtering the traffic as it left the perimeter. They were giving us what we want and did not have to worry anymore, I was happy with the solution. I view it as a mature solution that delivers what we need.
What needs improvement?
One of the issues with Umbrella is as you get into endpoint detection and response, such as EDR point solutions, some of them will not integrate well with Umbrella. Sometimes when you want to use technology, such as Always On VPN, it will not work. There are some looming issues as one type of technology starts to crossover with Umbrella. That is the challenge and Umbrella should find a way to be more compatible with some of the endpoint response solutions that are coming out on the market.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for a long time since it was OpenDNA which was before Cisco bought it.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
There are no scalability problems with this solution. They do a good job of having updated servers around the world and at all hours of day.
How are customer service and technical support?
One of the issues with Cisco technical support is that it is all linked to them having all of the maintenance contracts always running. If you work with a customer base where not everybody always renews their subscriptions and you need to get support but you did not sell the solution, it can make reaching the support a challenge. There is no problem with the quality of the support. However, sometimes Cisco's arcane rules regarding how they register and do tracking make it difficult for a managed service provider to get the support they need.
We do not have a problem with getting support for Umbrella because we have a contract for that. It is trying to get support for all the various pieces of networking hardware that customers have not maintained properly difficult, Cisco is not easy to deal with in this regard.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is straightforward.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
When talking about Cisco solutions in general there pricing model is horrible. For example, you can sell a Meraki-based solution, but if the customer starts shopping around, someone is going to have access to the pricing at a level that you cannot compete because they do not have uniform pricing. Not everybody gets fair pricing. Unless you are one of the real major corporations selling the solution your ability to compete is impossible. Cisco will acknowledge the situation and assure you next time it will be in your favor but it never becomes favorable for you. Cisco is not very good in this regard. However, Umbrella is good.
What other advice do I have?
If you are not using some form of DNS filtering to guard against threats, you are not doing a good job on security in the current climate anymore.
I rate Cisco Umbrella a nine out of ten.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Reseller
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Cisco Umbrella Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros
sharing their opinions.
Updated: June 2026
Product Categories
Domain Name System (DNS) Security Secure Web Gateways (SWG) Internet Security Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB) Cisco Security PortfolioPopular Comparisons
Fortinet FortiGate
Cloudflare
Cloudflare One
Cisco Secure Firewall
Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks
Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform
Zscaler Internet Access
Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE)
Cato SASE Cloud Platform
Netskope
Check Point Harmony SASE (formerly Perimeter 81)
Mimecast Advanced Email Security
Cisco Secure Network Analytics
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Cisco Umbrella Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros
sharing their opinions.
Quick Links
Learn More: Questions:
- Which is the better security solution - Cisco Umbrella or Zscaler?
- Which product do you prefer: Cisco Umbrella or Palo Alto Networks DNS Security?
- Which is the better security solution - Cisco Umbrella or Microsoft Cloud App Security?
- What are the pros and cons of Cisco Umbrella vs. Zscaler SASE for a large global enterprise?
- What are the differences and similarities of Symantec Fireglass and Cisco Umbrella?
- Which solution is better: Cisco Umbrella or Palo Alto Networks DNS Security?
- When evaluating DNS Security, what aspect do you think is the most important to look for?
- Why is Domain Name System (DNS) Security important for companies?
- What DNS security tool do you recommend?
- Why is domain name system security important?















The introduction of Cisco umbrella into our infrastructure was a tremendous change. It has helped to protect the infrastructure better. Because every traffic exiting to the internet is now being filtered. Also combined with Cisco WSA for web proxy, it is a good one.